What Is A Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

A day in the life of a real estate agent can be quite hectic. Aside from client meetings, property negotiations and site visits, there are the usual administrative tasks to be done. A popular saying in the real estate agency business is that if you’re pushing pencils, you are the assistant. If this is the situation you find yourself in every day, it is time for you to hire a real estate Virtual Assistant.

“Real Estate Virtual Assistant? Isn’t that like hiring a personal secretary?” If you thought that way, you’re not alone. When people hear the words “Virtual Assistant”, the first words that come to mind are “secretary” or “Personal Assistant”.

There is truth to the common perception that virtual assistants perform in the same manner as secretaries. After all as the term implies, their primary function is “to assist”.

But there is more to a Virtual Assistant that just the ability to take dictation, make reservations, arrange meetings and issue reminders.

How a Real Estate Virtual Assistant can Help Your Business

As business conditions became more unpredictable in the new millennium, companies started to look for ways to remain profitable. It was a struggle no doubt; but those that survived were the ones that decided to outsource work to third party service providers.

In fact, global volatility which occurred with 9/11 ushered in the era of outsourcing. More businesses started to outsource services to virtual assistants, freelances, telecommuters and outsourcing agencies. As a result, you could find a Virtual Assistant for every type of industry including real estate.

Here are 5 benefits of having a real estate Virtual Assistant for your business:

1. Reduces Cost of Hiring

If you hire a full-time assistant or secretary for your agency, you will have to set aside money for salary and compensation. Total calculation of basic pay and benefits should correspond with what is mandated by law. You cannot adjust work hours or amount of benefits to fit your budget.

In addition, you will also incur incremental expenses in rent, Internet bandwidth, utilities consumption and supplies.

When you go with a real estate VA, you throw all of these cost concerns out the window. As self- employed proprietors of the virtual assistance business, they are responsible for their own expenses and you only pay them for actual hours worked.

2. Gets More Work Done

Going through countless e-mails every morning, scheduling appointments and taking in calls are part of the business. But these are “time- wasters” because these tasks take you away from the work that you need to do to grow your business.

Delegate non- essential tasks to your real estate VA and you will have more time to dedicate to work that builds your business bottom-line.

3. Improves Business Focus

A real estate VA has the experience to prepare and review sales contracts. She can do research on trends and developments in the property market to keep you updated. She can also prepare your PowerPoint and spreadsheets for your next presentation.

While all of these activities are happening behind- the- scenes, you can drive more focus to the task of meeting clients, negotiating contracts and closing new accounts.

4. Organizes the Work Place

A prerequisite for a Virtual Assistant is to have the ability to organize the work place.

She can create a filing system so you won’t have to spend time looking for documents and communiqué. She can get your bills paid so you won’t have to worry about missing deadlines. She can issue reminders on meetings or arrange your schedule so you won’t be stressed out.

5. Relieves Your Stress

One of the most overlooked benefits of time management is allocating hours for rest and relaxation. If you want your business to succeed, it’s not about the quantity of hours you log in but how you spend them.

Part of productivity is taking care of your physical, mental and emotional state. If you’re constantly pushing the pedal, eventually you’ll breakdown. You should always find time to recharge.

A VA can give you the time to spend with your family and friends. You can have much needed time for exercise or extra rest. By the time you get back, you will be revitalized and more productive than ever.

How You Can Grow Your Business with a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

In the real estate business, there are 3 crucial areas that a Virtual Assistant can help you with:

1. Administrative Tasks

One of the most important tools in real estate is the MLS. This has to be consistently updated. With all the things you need to do, updating information in the MLS can easily be overlooked.

There is also so much paperwork that needs to get done. From contracts to reports to e-mails and various correspondence, administrative work can be overwhelming.

Having a VA onboard can get all of these matters to attended to and squared out right away.

2. Marketing Work

Marketing is what drives your business to thrive and grow. The real estate industry is quite competitive. There are thousands of agents competing for the same clients. You need to get your agency and profession out there in the market.

A Virtual Assistant can run your marketing campaign; online and traditional. She can manage your social media accounts and make sure your presence is always felt in the Internet. She can write great blogs and other content for distribution in different online channels.

She can also help design marketing collaterals for your traditional marketing needs for flyers, posters and streamers.

3. Sales Support

While the role of marketing is to acquire prospects and put them through a funnel, it may take several steps before the lead gets converted into a sale.

According to a study, 80% of sales are converted between the 5th and 12th call. How many of you are able to keep up after the 2nd or 3rd contact?

A real estate Virtual Assistant knows how to move a prospect through a sales funnel. You can trust that they can get the job done given their experience and skills in dealing with prospects.

If you want to take your agency to the next level, consider hiring a real estate Virtual Assistant as soon as possible. In business, time is money. The less time you allocate for productive activity, the more you compromise the growth of your business.

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More businesses around the world are outsourcing services to virtual assistants. From small- scale businesses to Fortune 500 companies, many have discovered and acknowledged why contracting virtual assistants is a good business strategy.

Virtual assistants are Internet- based professionals who are contracted to handle a specific task or set of responsibilities. They work from a remote location; usually from home and are generally considered self-employed or proprietors of a business that offers virtual assistance services.

Over the last 15 years, outsourcing has grown to become an important component in business development strategy. What was once viewed as a stop- gap measure to address cost reduction has evolved into a process that can actively contribute to revenue generation.

The exponential growth of outsourcing corresponds with increasing turbulence in the global economy. Political regimes are changing; new foreign policies are being enacted and economies are re-aligning their resources.

There is a growing trend among companies to integrate a remote staff member within their work force. In 2011, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer introduced a remote worker plan where 10% of staff worked from home. A few years later Meyer increased the distribution to 15%.

While Meyer chose not to maintain the program, other companies such as United Health Group, AETNA, IBM, AMEX and Xerox started their own remote worker programs.

Contracting the services of a real estate virtual assistant can help with those non dollar productive tasks. From taking and making calls, preparing contracts, updating lists, arranging inspections and marketing.

If you can’t manage time efficiently, your productivity will suffer and ultimately affect your agency’s profitability.

There is an option that will enable you to exponentially increase your productivity.

The Virtual Assistant was once the best kept secret of successful entrepreneurs. However once Tim Ferris, Michael Hyatt and James Schramko shared how their online employees allowed them to grow their businesses, others wanted to experience the same successes as well.

But as with most professions, not every candidate who signs up can get the job done.

Increasing demand for virtual assistance work has blown open the doors of opportunity for those who want to cross over to the online profession.

If you want to maximize the benefits of outsourcing, you may want to outsource to Philippines. It has been the primary destination for global outsourcing since 2013 and its industry continues to grow at an annual rate of 20%. If you want to know “why”, here are 7 reasons you should outsource to the Philippines:

High Literacy Rate – At 98%, the Philippines has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. This is quite an achievement considering the Philippines is essentially a developing economy.